School can be a place that promotes love of learning, engagement, and curiosity.

Students can have the opportunity to play as they learn with real-world, authentic tasks that let them feel the power of doing meaningful work. Let them see how they can make an impact on their own lives, on the lives of others, and in the world through their daily practice.

ACE My Academics reinforces the power of play that allows students to learn and utilize a comprehensive set of skills that they can continue to develop for the rest of their lives.  These are specific strategies and tactics for literacy that improve the growth of the whole student with 21st Century Skills that meets Common Core Standards.

Through ACE My Academics, students come to see themselves as investigators, researchers, authors, speakers, thinkers, and doers.

Students recognize the academic and social-emotional power that lies within themselves and can grow this power continuously through repeated interaction with texts, fellow students, and teachers.

“What lies behind us,
and what lies before us,
are tiny matters compared to
what lies within us.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”

— Ernest Hemingway

We need to adhere to an educational system that celebrates the whole person, whether she be a child, an adolescent, or an adult, looking to promote and integrate growth in the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical realms.

Let us celebrate the student for who she is and for who she can become, seeing the excellence that lies within.  Let us promote enjoyment of learning as it unfolds, so that process is valued.

Honoring the learner and the educational process builds curiosity and engagement and improves patience and perseverance, so there is an ongoing desire for the student and the teacher to invest themselves in development. This philosophy builds positive feedback loops to increase individual and social change that is filled with hope and optimism.

Two competing philosophies on education present themselves.  One emphasizes spontaneity, the other emphasizes structure.  Together, they form a 2 x 2 matrix of educational possibilities, yielding 4 results.

Structure

                            High                                Low

High                       Innovation                     Disorder

Spontaneity

Low                           Evolution                       Dullness

Tony Wagner Passion, Purpose, Play

General Colin Powell

How do we reconcile both?  We need to position our students towards being able to be innovative and evolutionary.  They need to have structures in place to to understand conventions and to have a means for exchange and tools for academic and social discourse.  They also need to be flexible to choose how and when to use these tools to make new discoveries.  The ACE My Academics platform supports both.